Forum: F-16 Procedures

stik wrote:

I know we have all heard about Pardo's Push but have any of y'all ever heard of an instance during Vietnam where an F-4's flight controls were damaged over North Vietnam and the pilot barrel-rolled far enough south to eject over friendly territory. I heard this story once or twice but can't find any info on it. I know if anyone has heard of this event it will be one of our own F-16.net readers.
stik

i beleive that was Randall Cuningham after his fifth kill. he was hit by a SAM over enemy territory and barrel rolled a good distance to the coast and ejected over water. from what ive read he was having trouble keeping altitude and had very limited control. the only way he could maintain altitude was to barrel roll a few times. i dunno if i got the story right but i believe that is what you are talking about.

F-16.net Sponsor

That's the correct story. The reason why Duke barrel rolled to feet wet was that both sides of his hydraulic system were leaking. When you run out of the flight hydraulics, the slabs go to their aerodynamic neutral which would pitch the jet up and out of control. He'd heard that you could slam the stick forward, trap the remaining fluid and have basically an unloaded jet. You have to use the manual rudder to roll the jet inverted which allows you to gain altitude...not an exact science, so that's why you have to continue to barrel roll to maintain some sort of altitude / vector. Credited his time in the vault reading for being prepared for this particular contingency. Made me a much more diligent LT in my misspent youth.

Too bad he screwed the pooch with his greed. I think he's still a guest of the government.

Forum: F-16 Procedures

KC-135 used boom to tow crippled F-4